Huntzberger Girl
by unravel
Summary: Post season seven; Rory and Logan face parenthood. Logan must come to terms with raising a daughter and learning to let go. Rory must watch her daughter grow into someone she barely knows, but... They have more in common than Rory could ever know.


It was a summer Saturday. That meant Alice was going to be out by the pool all day, like every other summer day. It also meant that she would be sleeping til noon if she had anything to say about it. When Alice woke up that day, she pushed back the curtains from her second story bay window so she could see the pool and the backyard. She flicked a button on her stereo, which filled the room with a hard bass beat as she pulled her bikini on. Alice was just brushing her hair out when there was a knock on her door.

"Lissi? McMasters' are here." Her mom poked her head into the room. "I like that swimsuit on you." Alice smiled at her, twirling.

"Thanks, Mom." Alice smiled again, loving how her mother didn't complain about the music. "Where's Daddy?" As she put down her brush, Alice saw her mom lean against the door jam.

"He just went out to lunch with your Aunt Honor, but he'll be back in an hour or so." Alice nodded, following her mother out the door to the stairs. "We need to talk about party plans at dinner, by the way." Alice nodded again, pushing past her mother on the stairs.

"Sounds like a plan, Mom."

She ran through the house, through the kitchen and living room until she closed the patio door behind her. Meg was already waiting for her by the pool. Alice plopped down on the pool chair next to her.

"Hey, girl!" Meg looked up from her magazine when Alice spoke, smiling.

"Hey, Lissi." Alice pushed her sunglasses down from her forehead and onto her nose, turning to look onto the patio.

"Hey, Aunt Paris!" Paris McMasters, her mom's best friend, waved from where she sat in the shade.

"Hello Alice. Did you put on sunscreen?" Alice pretended not to hear her as she turned back to the pool. She heard her mom close the patio door behind her and pull up a chair to where Paris was sitting. Meg and Alice lowered their voices.

"So, where's your brother?" Alice couldn't see Meg's eyes behind her sunglasses, but she felt like Meg shot her a sideways look. Alice smirked, settling into her chair. Meg exhaled, taking a moment before answering Alice's question.

"Dear Simon is in London, like I've told you everyday this summer. Geez, Lis, you hook up with him a few times and all of a sudden your obsessed or something." Alice reached over to hit her best friend in the arm. "Um, ow?" The two girls laughed. Meg continued after a few seconds. "Besides, you have Henry." Alice nodded, closing her eyes behind her glasses.

"Yeah, I do…" Alice sighed dramatically and Meg laughed. The patio door clanged and Alice, twisted to see if the mothers had gone inside. Instead, there was someone else standing with them, dressed in a crisp button up and slacks. The man looked up to where Alice was sitting. She waved to him. "Daddy!" Alice laughed as he walked over, kissing her forehead.

"Hey there, kid." He waved to Meg, smiling. "Hey, Meghan."

"What's up, Uncle Logan?" Logan Huntzberger shrugged.

"Not a lot." He looked back to Alice, hitting her arm lovingly. "Just had lunch with your Aunt Honor. She's bringing your cousins to the party." Alice nodded.

"That sounds good Daddy. Mom said we were gonna talk about finalizing plans tonight over dinner?" Logan nodded.

"It's a date." He waved to Meg as he walked back towards the two women. Meg watched him go.

"Lis, your dad is so hot." Alice laughed loudly, shaking her head.

"You are such a creep."

That night at dinner, Alice mapped out her plans for her parents. Her father, of course, agreed to everything Alice wanted. Her mother, on the other hand, was a little more level-headed. Logan gave her a look.

"Rory, come on…" Alice and Logan both turned to her, pouting. Rory rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine. Your grandma wants to know what you want, though, Alice. Though I'm sure she'll ignore whatever you suggest." Alice laughed, picking a roll out of the basket in the middle of the table.

"Just tell her absolutely no monogramming this year." As a poke at Rory, Lorelai managed to sneak in something into Alice's present every year. It was a joke about how long her name ended up being.

"What, you don't want Alice Lorelai Emily Huntzberger-Gilmore on everything you own?" Logan asked, with mock seriousness. Alice stuck her tongue out at him. The hyphenated last name came from her mother's stubbornness to change her last name. She reached for both of her parents hands, changing the subject.

"It's not everyday your little girl turns seventeen, you guys." Rory and Logan shared a look over the table.

"No, it most certainly is not…" Rory said, dazed.

When Alice had kissed both her parents good night and headed up to her room, Rory and Logan were left alone to wash dishes. Logan took the opportunity to pull a bottle of scotch from underneath the island in the center of the kitchen. Rory laughed, putting the last dish in the drainer. One of the things she loved about their small family was the small amount of dishes. Logan poured a small amount of scotch into two glasses.

"Are you inviting Henry's family to Alice's party?" Logan asked, wincing from the scotch. Rory sipped hers. Henry, Alice's long-term boyfriend of over a year, was a Chilton boy. That's where the two had met. Rory had gotten her daughter into Chilton as early as possibly, not wanting the harsh transition for her daughter that she knew all too well. But when her daughter came to her with her new boyfriend, Rory couldn't help but be surprised. During her years at Chilton, Rory hadn't even thought of dating a single boy there. If her daughter wasn't a mystery to her by then, that certainly changed. Her husband's question still hung in the air. Rory exhaled softly.

"I guess, Logan. I mean, it's only polite." Logan clenched his jaw, setting his empty tumbler down on the granite counter. Rory sighed, reaching over to run a hand over his back. "Come on. We should be supportive." Logan shook his head.

"I don't like that boy, Ror." Rory sighed again.

"Logan… You can't just reject because his dating your daughter." Logan looked up at her, rubbing a hand over his forehead.

"It's not just that and you know it Rory." Logan lowered his voice. "You know that they're having sex. And if they're not now, they will be soon." Rory bit her lip, reaching out to hold Logan by the elbows.

"Look, I know you want Lis to be five years old forever—"

"She was such a cute baby, Ace."

"—But she's growing up. She'll be turning seventeen on Tuesday. And I don't want you to ruin her party by tackling her boyfriend between the singing and cutting the cake." Logan reached up to run a hand down Rory's hair as she spoke. Rory leaned in, touching her forehead with Logan's.

Upstairs, Alice almost didn't hear the knock on her window over the music she had turned up again. Smiling, she unlatched the large window and swung it open, almost knocking Henry Carlyle off the ladder he had leaned up against the side of the house. Alice giggled.

"Could you knock a little louder? I don't think my parents heard you." Henry wiggled his eyebrows at her, grabbing her purse as she swung it down to him.

"Babe, there's no way you would've heard me over the music if I knocked any quieter." Alice stuck her tongue out at him, shooing him down the ladder. When they were on the ground and Alice had closed her window behind her, the two loaded the ladder into the back of Henry's SUV. Henry grabbed Alice by the waist, kissing her. She pushed him away, laughing.

"Not right now. Let's wait until we're at least a good distance from my dad. He would personally come out here and beat you to a pulp if he knew you were out here." Henry rolled his eyes, circling around the car to climb into the driver's seat. Alice climbed into the passenger seat. She took one last look up to her house. Her parents' lit-up window faded into the distance as Henry drove away.

Rory was lying on her side, reading, while Logan brushed his teeth. She felt the weight on the mattress shift as he slid in next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. Rory giggled, turning to kiss him. Logan reached up to turn the light off. As they sat in the dark, Logan rubbed Rory's stomach.

"That tickles." Logan kissed her neck. They were quiet for a few minutes before Rory spoke again. "What you said about Lissi earlier is bugging me." She couldn't see Logan in the dark, but she could hear him shift to look at her.

"What's that?"

"What you said about her and Henry having sex." They were quiet again. This time, it was Logan who broke the silence.

"She reminds me of Lorelai." It was Rory's turn to look at her husband.

"Why do you say that?" She felt Logan shrug.

"Well, from what you told me about how your mom was when she was Alice's age…"

"She's not going to get pregnant, Logan. Alice is smarter than that." Logan nuzzled up against Rory's cheek. When he spoke, it was a whisper in her ear.

"I know she won't get pregnant because the next time I see that boyfriend of hers, I will personally render him incapable of ever having children."

"That is the worst pillow talk I have ever heard." Logan laughed and kissed Rory.

It was four o'clock in the morning when Henry dropped Alice off at the end of her driveway. Sleepily, Alice dragged her feet around the side of the house and quietly let herself in through the back door. It was just unlucky that Rory had, just moments earlier, come down for a drink of water.

Alice looked back at her mother and her mother looked back, holding her glass raised to her lips. Alice didn't know how long they stood like that, but eventually Rory looked away and walked slowly up the stairs. Not knowing what had just happened, Alice stood frozen for a little bit longer. After a few more minutes, she followed her mother's lead and walked up to her room.

Alice hardly slept. When her clock said it was time that her parents would be down eating breakfast, she jumped out of bed and walked down stairs in her pajamas. Sitting at the dinner table was Logan, reading the paper, and her mother, reading a book. Quietly, Alice made her way into the kitchen, to the coffeemaker. She pulled a mug out of its cabinet and filled it with the hot coffee. She watched her parents from across the kitchen as she mixed the black coffee with sugar and the hazelnut cream that Rory knew was her daughter's favorite. Looking around the house, Alice took her first sip. She loved their house. Her mom had grown up in Stars Hollow, Connecticut and had wanted nothing different for her daughter. As her parents always told her, it took a bit of coercing into getting Logan to move to Stars Hollow, but Alice's great-grandmother already had a house picked out. Once, she remembered her mother telling her that Alice's great-grandmother had actually bought the house for Rory's mother, Lorelai (who threw a fit whenever Alice called her 'grandma'). Though, Alice's mother still drove her all the way to Chilton, half an hour away. Rory worked from home, in small office that Logan had set up for her. After working for a prominent, independent newspaper through the first few years of her marriage, Rory started her own publishing company. And she loved it. Alice, back in the kitchen, finally cleared her throat and sat down at the table with her parents.

"Do you have to work today, Mom?" Rory looked up from her cereal, studying her daughter for a few slow minutes. Alice held her breath.

"No, sweetie. Why?" Alice sipped her coffee.

"Could we go visit Lor?" Rory nodded, looking to Logan. Logan looked up to see the two girls looking at him. He sighed.

"I have to work." Alice frowned. "Sorry, Lis. I'll make it up to you, though, okay? We'll go out for a pre-birthday father-daughter dinner tonight. Sound good?" Alice looked to her mom, who was looking at Logan with a curious look. Alice looked back to her father.

"Yeah, Daddy. That sounds like fun." Alice sat for a minute thinking. "Could Henry come?" Logan sat up straighter, looking to Rory. Rory made a cautious face at her husband. Alice waited, biting her lip. "I mean, I really would like it if you guys got along." Rory nodded to Logan, widening her eyes. Logan finally turned back to his daughter.

"Sure, Alice. Call him and ask." Alice nodded, grinning. The family sat in silence. Alice lifted her mug to take a sip of her coffee. Logan, suddenly, laughed. Rory looked up at him.

"Sixteen and drinking coffee." Logan said, looking back at Rory, smirking. "She sure is a Gilmore girl. I told you not to drink coffee while you were pregnant, Ace." Rory rolled her eyes as Alice laughed.

"It was one cup! I still cannot hear the last of that." Rory's eyes sparkled at her husband. "And besides, she's not just a Gilmore girl. She's a Huntzberger girl."


End file.
